How Do I Start Siphoning Water?

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey guys. I got a DIY canister filter for my 5 gallon planted aquarium. One of the tubes that goes into the aquarium has to siphon the water. How do I start the siphoning process? I can't suck on the end because it's in the container, and the going up and down really fast wouldn't work either. And I don't feel like spending like 4 or 5 dollars on a siphon starter then going and spending an extra 10 for shipping. None of my lfs has the siphon starts.


Does anyone have any suggestions????? I reallly reallllllly need some.







,Ben

 

[mrrrkva]

Can you submerge the tube and hold your hands over both ends and start the siphon that way?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Can you submerge the tube and hold your hands over both ends and start the siphon that way?

No because one end is under all of my media.

 

[Purrbox]

How big is the tubing? You might be able to find some type of shringe that fits in the end of the tubing that can be used to start the syphon.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

How big is the tubing? You might be able to find some type of shringe that fits in the end of the tubing that can be used to start the syphon.

It's 1/2'' ID

 

[Purrbox]

I'd recommend picking up a children's medicine shringe and see if it does the trick. It should be almost exactly the necessary diameter.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I'd recommend picking up a children's medicine shringe and see if it does the trick. It should be almost exactly the necessary diameter.

The only problem with that is that the place that I would suck, is in the container under all of my media stuff.

 

[Purrbox]

Perhaps you could use the shringe to push water in from the intake side?

 

[jsoong]

How is your canister designed? You should not have to start the siphon manually if designed properly. The media section should be air tight & when the pump is on it creates a vacuum & sucks the water down the outflow, starting your siphon.

If this is not the case, then you have basically a sump/overflow setup. You need a properly designed overflow (I doubt that is practical in a 5 gal). If you just have a simple siphon down to your filter, when your pump fails (power out, clogs), the siphon will still take water down to the filter but the pump can't return the water back fast enough. You will end up with all your tank water on the floor!

 

[newfound77951]

If you fill the intake hose with water (use a funnel and cup) from the tank end, then submerge the end in the tank, it should start siphoning to fill the filter. If not, I'd fill up the filter, reassemble it, fill the lines manually and then plug 'er in.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Hey everyone. I figured out how to do it. I filled the container with water then i sucked up water from there. Then i stuck that end in the water and when the water in the tube tried to drained back into the container it sucked up water then it started siponin

 

[subtle]

I just did this today!

What I found difficult to deal with was a kink in the hose from the packaging. I had to squeeze the sides to get water through. I also had to make sure that most, if not all, of the tubing was facing downward and had no loops where the water would have to move upward. That even meant wedging it between my knees!

Glad you got it working!

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I just did this today!

What I found difficult to deal with was a kink in the hose from the packaging. I had to squeeze the sides to get water through. I also had to make sure that most, if not all, of the tubing was facing downward and had no loops where the water would have to move upward. That even meant wedging it between my knees!

Glad you got it working!

Yeah i got it workin thats.